Mario Vacca shared the following leaflet with me.

His father, Felice “Phil” Vacca, an escapee from Camp 59, later described distribution of the leaflets over the Italian countryside:

“…American planes dropped [these] leaflets by the thousands in the area, offering 5,000 lire to any Italian who would help hide and care for the escapees. There were so many leaflets it looked as though it had snowed.”

Shown below are the leaflet’s front and back sides and translation into English.

ITALIANS UNDER THE GERMAN YOKE!

Throughout Italy’s roads, forests, and mountains partisan soldiers are in battle against the Germans.

Day and night from their shops, the railways, and fields, they continue to sabotage the oppressors.

Beyond their active struggle is work that everyone—regardless of age or gender—can do: help the English and American prisoners escape from the Germans.

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Private First Class Felice Vacca

I first heard about Felice “Phil” Vacca when his son Mario wrote to me last January:

“My father, Felice Vacca, escaped from PG 59 along with Peter Calvagno, Edmond Petrelli, Joe Mandese and Tony Spicola. I have visited the camp twice. I do have some history if you are interested.”

When I wrote back that of course I was very interested, Mario then sent me a long, detailed account of Phil’s experiences.

Mario had clearly invested a great deal of thought and effort into recording his father’s story. The format he chose was that of a scholarly research paper, complete with extensive footnotes, cross references to historical accounts of the war in North Africa (where Phil was captured), and links to web resources.

What I am posting here, with Mario’s permission, has been taken from that larger paper. Although I’ve removed the notes and references to external sources, the posts contain Phil’s full account of his experiences as well as additional details provided by Mario’s brother Jim.

Mario’s brother Tony was a resource for the paper, too. It was Tony who, when stationed in Italy during the 1960s, found the Virgili family—Phil’s protectors after his escape from Camp 59.

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Phil Vacca escaped from Camp 59 with four other prisoners, shown in this photograph. At rear (left to right) are Peter Calvagno, Edmond Petrelli, and Joe Mandese. In front (left to right) are Tony Spicola, and Phil Vacca.

This post is the second installment of the story of Camp 59 survivor Felice “Phil Vacca, which began with “Part 1—Off to War.”

“In January of 1943, we were taken by passenger car to Rome, Camp P.G. 50. Approximately 20 of us American-Italians spent about a month there being interrogated. The questions they asked were the same as before (and they already had the answers to them). There was a German planted among us who spoke American English quite fluently. The interrogators were an Italian Calvary and Mountain Troops (The Alpine Post). While I was there, I saw Mussolini’s Arabian horse. It was a beautiful horse.

“Our group of American Italians remained together for the rest of our trip by passenger car to Camp P.G. 59.

“When we were captured, we had regular uniform on. We had our heavy coats, since the nights were cool, even in North Africa. After our arrival at our permanent camp, P.G. 59, we were given gray jackets with a red 4 x 4-inch patch on the right side of the back of the jacket. On the pants they had sewed on another 4 x 4-inch red patch between the knee and hip. They let us keep our uniform, except for the gray jacket, which was theirs.”

Camp P.G. 59 had wood frame buildings for barracks, with windows and two doors—one at each end of the building. The barracks were intact, but with no heat of any kind. The windows were open to the outside. Bugs and lice were plentiful.

“You’d go in for delousing and come out worse than when you went in.” Phil said. “We passed time with bed bugs and body lice.

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In a quiet 27-acre cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, rest 2,841 individuals who gave their lives in military service.

Their headstones, set in straight lines, are subdivided by wide paths into nine rectangular plots, with a decorative pool at each of the paths’ intersections.

Along one edge of the burial area, bordering a tree-lined terrace, is a Wall of the Missing, upon which 3,724 names are engraved. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

Most honored in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial lost their lives in World War II in military activities ranging from North Africa to the Persian Gulf.

Among the buried soldiers is Phil Vacca’s cousin Battista “Bucky” Linico Jr.

Bucky was like a little brother to Phil. He and Phil had enlisted under the “buddy system” on January 3, 1941. They served together in North Africa, and Phil witnessed Bucky’s death at the battle for St. Cloud on November 10, 1942. Bucky was 21 years old.

Phil was captured the following month at Longstop Hill. He was eventually interned at Camp 59. Phil’s full story will be shared in upcoming posts.

Bucky’s death was announced in the (Lambertville, New Jersey) Beacon:

Reported Killed

Private “Bucky” Linico
As reported in last week’s Beacon, Private Battista Linico, son of Mr. and Mrs. Battista Linico, of 38 Coryell Street, Lambertville, was killed in action in the “Western European area.” Information of his death was given in a telegram received by Mrs. Linico, Jr., of Phillipsburg.